Chapter XIX.—Jesus Christ was not a
mere man, begotten from Joseph in the ordinary course of nature, but was very
God, begotten of the Father most high, and very man, born of the Virgin.

1. But again, those who assert that
He was simply a mere man, begotten by Joseph, remaining in the bondage of
the old disobedience, are in a state of death having been not as yet
joined to the Word of God the Father, nor receiving liberty through the
Son, as He does Himself declare: “If the Son shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed.”36653665John viii. 36. But,
being ignorant of Him who from the Virgin is Emmanuel, they are deprived
of His gift, which is eternal life;36663666Rom. vi. 23. and not
receiving the incorruptible Word, they remain in mortal flesh, and are
debtors to death, not obtaining the antidote of life. To whom the Word
says, mentioning His own gift of grace: “I said, Ye are all the
sons of the Highest, and gods; but ye shall die like men.”36673667Ps. lxxxii. 6,
7. He speaks undoubtedly these words to those who
have not received the gift of adoption, but who despise the incarnation
of the pure generation of the Word of God,36683668 The original Greek is preserved here by
Theodoret, differing in some respects from the old Latin version:
καὶ ἀποστεροῦντας
τὸν ἄνθρωπον τῆς εἰς Θεὸν ἀνόδου καὶ ἀχαριστοῦντας
τῷ ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν σαρκωθέντι
λόγῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ ὁ λόγος ἄνθρωπος …
ἵνα ὁ ἄνθρωπος τὸν λόγον χωρήσας, καὶ τὴν υἱοθεσίαν λαβὼν, υἱὸς γένηται Θεοῦ. The old Latin
runs thus: “fraudantes hominem ab ea ascensione quæ est ad
Dominum, et ingrate exsistentes Verbo Dei, qui incarnatus est propter
ipsos. Propter hoc enim Verbum Dei homo, et qui Filius Dei est, Filius
Hominis factus est … commixtus Verbo Dei, et adoptionem percipiens
fiat filius Dei.” [A specimen of the liberties taken by the Latin
translators with the original of Irenæus. Others are much less
innocent.] defraud human nature of promotion into God, and
prove themselves ungrateful to the Word of God, who became flesh for
them. For it was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He
who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken
into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God.
For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and
immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility and
immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and
immortality, unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had
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become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be
swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that we
might receive the adoption of sons?

2. For this reason [it is, said], “Who shall
declare His generation?”36693669Isa. liii. 8. since
“He is a man, and who shall recognise Him?”36703670Jer. xvii. 9. But he to whom the Father which is in heaven has revealed
Him,36713671Matt.
xvi. 16. knows Him, so that he understands that He
who “was not born either by the will of the flesh, or by the will
of man,”36723672John i. 13. is the Son of man, this is
Christ, the Son of the living God. For I have shown from the
Scriptures,36733673 See above,
iii. 6. that no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything,
and absolutely, called God, or named Lord. But that He is Himself in His
own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King
Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the
apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained
to even a small portion of the truth. Now, the Scriptures would not have
testified these things of Him, if, like others, He had been a mere man.
But that He had, beyond all others, in Himself that pre-eminent birth
which is from the Most High Father, and also experienced that pre-eminent
generation which is from the Virgin,36743674Isa. vii. 14. the
divine Scriptures do in both respects testify of Him: also, that He was a
man without comeliness, and liable to suffering;36753675Isa. liii. 2. that He sat upon the foal of an ass;36763676Zech. ix. 9. that He received for drink, vinegar and gall;36773677Ps. lxix. 21. that He was despised among the people, and humbled Himself even
to death and that He is the holy Lord, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the
Beautiful in appearance, and the Mighty God,36783678Isa. ix. 6. coming on the clouds as the Judge of all men;36793679Dan. vii. 13.—all these things did the Scriptures prophesy of Him.

3. For
as He became man in order to undergo temptation, so also was He the Word
that He might be glorified; the Word remaining quiescent, that He might
be capable of being tempted, dishonoured, crucified, and of suffering
death, but the human nature being swallowed up in it (the divine), when
it conquered, and endured [without yielding], and performed acts of
kindness, and rose again, and was received up [into heaven]. He
therefore, the Son of God, our Lord, being the Word of the Father, and
the Son of man, since He had a generation as to His human nature from
Mary—who was descended from mankind, and who was herself a human
being—was made the Son of man.36803680Isa. vii. 13. Wherefore
also the Lord Himself gave us a sign, in the depth below, and in the
height above, which man did not ask for, because he never expected that a
virgin could conceive, or that it was possible that one remaining a
virgin could bring forth a son, and that what was thus born should be
“God with us,” and descend to those things which are
of the earth beneath, seeking the sheep which had perished, which was
indeed His own peculiar handiwork, and ascend to the height above,
offering and commending to His Father that human nature (hominem)
which had been found, making in His own person the first-fruits of the
resurrection of man; that, as the Head rose from the dead, so also the
remaining part of the body—[namely, the body] of everyman who is
found in life—when the time is fulfilled of that condemnation
which existed by reason of disobedience, may arise, blended together and
strengthened through means of joints and bands36813681Eph. iv. 16. by the increase of God, each of the members having its own proper
and fit position in the body. For there are many mansions in the
Father’s house,36823682John xiv. 2. inasmuch as there are also
many members in the body.